The objective of the European research project Noviwam (2010-2013), involving four types of partners (research institutes, business entities, water managers, and other stakeholders) for five regions or countries (Cyprus, Albania, Region Poitou Charentes, Northern Hydrological Region in Portugal, Andalusia), was to harmonize research planning, and to make consistent and complementary the approaches used to solve the problems related to the water resource management, from the quantitative and the qualitative point of view. We indicate here the approach we followed, and we give some elements on the research priorities. We also describe succinctly an example of a feasibility study undertaken in order to illustrate these issues, aiming at lowering the water consumption (a decrease of 25 %) for irrigation, while maintaining constant the farmers’ income and the volumes of agricultural goods produced; and also while ensuring the stability of the water management company’s budget.